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Brentford are safely through to the fourth round of the FA Cup where we will be ball number 27 in Monday night’s draw. Others to look out for include: Manchester City (8) , Chelsea (13), Arsenal (20) , Fulham (21) and Hull City (4). There’s no QPR, though, as they’ve been knocked out.

With 32 teams (subject to replays playing out) left, the rewards for starting the competition as a Championship club are clear. The question now being whether your preference is a ‘winnable’ home game for the sake of longer term progression or a glamour tie with the likes of the aforementioned Chelsea, Manchester City et al for a chance to test ourselves in the backyards of the very best. Or Arsenal.

Equally possible is a dour draw. Away to the likes of a Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers or Derby County. Games we’ve seen week in, week out over the last few seasons and one with about as much cup magic as a children’s party entertainer.

More cup magic here than a trip to Middlesbrough

Of course, there’s no guarantees of anything being winnable these days regardless of league placing.

Just look at Bournemouth, Liverpool, Ipswich Town and Rotherham United from this weekend alone. Complacency can be the mother of all foul ups, with teams having a tendency to raise their game when the next round of the cup comes.

Surely the dream ticket is ‘big club’ , at home. A chance for us to dent the hopes of more glamorous opposition and make a name for ourselves. Such moments, whilst fleeting for a club like Brentford, really are the stuff of dreams. We’ve done it over the years. Trumping the likes of Manchester City and Sunderland whilst running Southampton and Chelsea more than close. Oh, for a chance to do it once more.

Bliss doing his thing against Manchester City in the fourth round – January 1989

Whoever it is, FA Cup ‘legends’ Martin Keown and Michael Owen will be the men pulling the balls from the tombola (please, don’t…). BT Sport is the place to catch the action if you want to see it all unfold.

This most famous of tournaments may have lost much of its sheen in recent years, with many ‘big’ clubs viewing it as an inconvenicene (surely there is a case here for just putting the League cup out of its misery) but nobody can deny that the moment of anticipation as we await the first of the names to be read out is second to none in football. Even now.